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An attempt to raise the bar for young drinkers
Renewed efforts are being put into steering children away from alcohol, reports Sally Jarman
 Party time: girls enjoy a night on the town PA |
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BRITISH teenagers drink more alcohol and take more drugs than any others in the Western world, a new World Health Organisation study has found. In monetary terms, the charity Alcohol Concern estimates that alcohol misuse now costs Britain £20 billion a year, including the NHS, policing, and the economy. Socially, it is considered that binge drinking causes harm not only to drinkers, but also to their families, friends, and their communities. Earlier this year, the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, launched an anti-binge-drinking media campaign as part of the government’s “Safe, Sensible, Social” alcohol strategy. She said that the Home Office was not prepared to tolerate alcohol-fuelled crime and disorder. Yet critics blame the Government’s relaxation of the licensing laws, which allowed 24-hour drinking. Young men aged between 16 and 25 are the heaviest drinking demographic in the population. Figures from the Drinkaware Trust suggest that 36 per cent of young men between 18 and 24 may get “very drunk” at least once a month, rising to twice a month for 27 per cent of young women of the same age. Drinking is increasing among teens and pre-teens too. According to figures produced by the School Health Education Unit, in 2007, one in ten 10-11-year olds and one in five 12-13-year-olds will have drunk alcohol in the past week. Nearly a quarter of 15-year-old girls are said to get drunk at least once a week. Last year the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, released a youth alcohol action plan, aimed at helping young people make sensible decisions about alcohol through awareness projects. WHO will develop a draft global strategy to reduce harmful consumption of alcohol to present to the World Health Assembly in May 2010. But the current WHO report, Strategies to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol, suggests that one of the biggest conundrums for anyone attempting to tackle alcohol misuse in the UK specifically is the image and status of alcohol in our society. Although smoking has fallen from grace socially, drinking is generally acceptable across all strata of society. In at least two of our most popular TV soaps, the social lives of the characters revolve around a pub: the Queen Vic and the Rovers Return. Critics also highlight the influence of celebrity culture.A report by Alcohol Concern argues that parents act as role-models on the young. Since both abstainers and heavy drinkers are more likely to have children who drink heavily, a balanced drinking example set by parents is identified as being of particular importance. |
 A former drug-addict, Matt Cambell-McClean from CASM is picturered with pupils from Mosslands School, Wallasey LIVERPOOL ECHO |
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DEREK FERGUSON, of Mentor UK, an alcohol- and drug-misuse prevention charity, says that the mixed messages young people are receiving about alcohol are clouding their judgement and influencing their consumption.
“Unfortunately, alcohol is not viewed with the same understanding of its potentially harmful effects as other drugs. It is freely available, and is still very much a part of the social life of many people of all ages. Yet we only have to look at the statistics to see what harm and heartbreak it can cause if allowed to get out of hand.”
The charity, which champions best practice in projects working to prevent alcohol misuse in young people, believes it is essential to educate children at a young age to recognise that alcohol represents danger if it is not treated with knowledge and respect.
Mr Ferguson says: “It is only when young people are given the facts about alcohol that they can make sensible, informed decisions about their own intake.”
Mentor UK run the bi-annual CHAMP Awards. The awards focus on promoting children’s health by recognising the best UK alcohol misuse prevention projects working with children and young people (aged 14 and under). This year, two church-based projects are among the shortlisted entries.
CASM (Churches Action on Substance Misuse), a Christian-based charity in the Wirrall, run by Kevin Coverley, has an alcohol workshop programme in schools in the area. Last month, the project’s four staff had contact with nearly 3000 secondary school students at its one-hour workshops.
In the workshops, young people are given information about the effects of excessive drinking on health, and on risk-taking behaviour. Students explore the social and personal issues surrounding drinking through role-play, and through question-and-answer sessions.
One-to-one work with teenagers on the brink of social exclusion is an important part of CASM’s work: “With some, it might be a case of basically keeping the kid in school when they’re about to be excluded. We get alongside them and try and help them come to an agreement with the school before they start on the slippery slope that starts with exclusion.” |
 Passers-by look at a male mannequin posed to represent a drunk man urinating on the floor in a window in Covent Garden, London, as part of the Government's new anti-binge-drinking campaign PA |
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Mr Coverley welcomes the Government’s recognition of the need for alcohol-awareness education. He believes this cannot start too young. “Statistics show that lots of young people start experimenting with alcohol — perhaps from their parents’ drinks cabinet — before their teens. We need to be going into primary schools to warn children as young as ten and 11 about the dangers they are putting themselves in.”
He says that research has identified pre-teens as one of the most vulnerable to alcohol misuse, as children move from the familiar primary school into the much bigger world of secondary school.
Later crunch-times also come at around 13 and 14, as puberty kicks in, and again in the late teens, when young people are preparing for life outside school, looking for independence, and, typically, have more money to spend from weekend jobs.
In tandem with more education, Mr Coverley believes there is a need to address society’s wider perception of alcohol as a benign social substance, before a change in drinking behaviour comes aboput.
“Unless we do something about our ambiguous attitude to alcohol consumption and its consequences, we are on the point of sacrificing a whole generation of children. I believe it is that serious.”
He talks of parents laughing with friends in front of their children about getting drunk; or giving their children money and dropping them off at parks to drink with friends. He also tells of a toddler who was allowed to wander down the aisle of a church with the empty communion-wine bottle: all sending out messages to young people that drinking is a regular part of life.
What they are not shown until it is too late, he says, is the flip side of excess alcohol consumption: school exclusion, the breakdown of friend and family relationships, mental-health problems, and, possibly, loss of job. He speaks from experience when he says that, by then, it is not so easy to walk away from alcohol, even if you want to.
Now a family man who does not drink, Mr Coverley says: “I spent 15 years doing drugs and alcohol, and, for me, they are the same thing. They both alter the mind, and make living a normal life impossible.”
He says his life was turned around when, emerging from rehab, he became a Christian and found huge support from the church he joined. “They surrounded me with God’s love as I found a flat; supporting me as I started trying to live a normal life again, which was so alien to me after 15 years.”
He encourages churches and individuals to get involved in projects tackling youth alcohol misuse: “From looking at our own behaviour to helping kids understand the issues, we’ve all got to move together to do this stuff. We can’t walk away and pretend it doesn’t exist when the lives of children — future parents — are at stake.
“We need to stop concentrating on whether we can meet our parish shares, and also think about our responsibility to create a better future for young people. As Christians, our faith is our strength to be able to do this.”
CASM will continue its work as long as funding is available. Mr Coverley says that the £10,000 prize for the winner of the CHAMP Award would be a welcome boost to funds that have to be found each year to deliver the programme.
When asked whether the task of changing attitudes seems hopeless, he says: “Feedback we get from young people is that they didn’t realise the full effect that alcohol could have on their lives, and they feel more in control of their future after the workshops. If we can stop just one teenager from wrecking their life, it’s worth it.”
IN DUMFRIES, Anne Hughes of PARTY (Providing Alcohol Related Training for Youth) agrees that Christians should get involved in the issue. “Paul Scanlon of the Abundant Life Church in Bradford said that a world you won’t enter is a world you can’t reach, and that is very true of tackling the problems of alcohol misuse among young people. Churches need to understand the issue and see what they can do in their local area to support those who are tackling the problems.”
PARTY, which evolved from the Youth Alive Christian organisation run by the Assemblies of God Church in Dumfries, is the second Christian project shortlisted in the CHAMP awards for its commitment in the community.
Ms Hughes says: “Although now seen as a community project for youngsters of all faiths and none, it is underpinned by Christian values and staffed by Christian volunteers. It is an ongoing example of God’s love in action within the community.”
She devised the alcohol awareness training programme after hearing young people talking about drinking one night at the “dry bar” in the Youth Alive youth centre.
“I realised there were some serious issues surrounding the culture of drink that these young people were being thrown into, and that, without more information to draw on, they were at risk of falling into that culture, and potentially misuse of alcohol.”
The programme she devised runs in schools and youth centres in north-west Dumfries, an area of regeneration, where not drinking is sometimes considered stranger than drinking. |
 Teenagers take part in a PARTY workshop |
| The training uses an interactive approach to get the message across that drink is not compulsory, and does not have to mean drunk. As well as activities looking at the images young people are receiving about alcohol from the world around them, Ms Hughes says that, importantly, quantities are also discussed and demonstrated: “We realised that, although teenagers knew the legal number of units they could have, they generally didn’t know what that meant for the range of different alcohol they drank. “And among the young teenage generation, with a culture of taking a bottle along to a party, it’s very important they do know. They were amazed at the dribble of something like vodka that constitutes their legal units allowed.” She says: “Alcohol is a drug, but it’s a drug that society accepts; so we want young people at least to respect its potential dangers and to en-courage them to look at how they can drink responsibly, as well as exploring positive alternatives.” Ms Hughes welcomes the current TV advertising campaign that dwells on the consequences of excessive drinking. “Drinking does have consequences, for the drinker and for those around them, and adults as well as teenagers too often don’t connect with that side of it.” Feedback from the young people who have completed the training has been positive, she says: many say they now felt empowered to handle their alcohol intake responsibly. As with CASM, the effectiveness of the PARTY course has attracted support from other organisations: local council workers are now being trained to run PARTY training courses, and the organisation is also working with the local alcohol and drugs action team to deliver training in other regions. Ms Hughes says she is delighted that PARTY has been so well received. But her motivation remains rooted with young people. “If it saves one young person’s life, and stops young people putting themselves in danger, that for me is enough.” The winners of the Mentor UK CHAMP awards will be announced in November. www.mentorfoundation.org/uk/awards |
